"Once you’ve slept in the shadow of the San Jacinto Mountains you are bound to return." — Cahuilla Indian saying

In the middle of last year, when I was in turmoil about my spiritual home, I joined the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF). I was a Unitarian in Oklahoma City in the early 1980s, and it hit me, in the midst of the confusion, that I could be a member of CLF.The CLF was set up specifically for those who don't have a brick and mortar UU church nearby.

As I came to terms with the fact that I really wanted and needed to be in an Episcopal church, I started attending St. John the Divine, as you well know.

Last week I sent a letter resigning my membership in CLF. I want to commit my full attention to St. John's, even though I haven't actually joined yet.

"Tigger is all right, really," said Pooh lazily. "Of course he is," said Christopher Robin. "Everybody is really," said Pooh. "That's what I think," said Pooh. "But I don't suppose I'm right," he said. "Of course you are," said Christopher Robin

—A. A. Milne, courtesy of Kassy Fatooh, opening the weekly "Joys and Concerns" on the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship email discussion list

This adult, at least, has much to learn from Pooh's somewhat childlike perspective.

Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

People who know me know that if there is a high tech way of doing something and a low tech way, I'll take the high tech way.

When I get my prescription refills, I'll use the online Web form rather that dropping them by the pharmacy. But this creates a couple of problems. The prescription doesn't go to my local pharmacy, but to a central location. When refills got down to one, they would request a renewal from my doctor. But when the refills hit zero a new prescription number was generated, and the approved renewal was tied with the old prescription number, not the new one. Then they changed the system so when I requested a refill, it didn't notice there was a new prescription number after a renewal replacing the old, and my refill request went into a void somewhere. I now drop off my refill requests at the local pharmacy.

My hearing aid has an iCom device that allows it to connect with other devices, either by Bluetooth or cable. I've always attached a Bluetooth device to my iPod when walking Tasha, but those devices like to turn off the iPod arbitrarily and for no good reason when they are even slightly jostled around, as happens when out with Tasha on the leash. More recently, I've been using the cable, which doesn't have that problem.

There is a second way in which confusion about God's will leads to passivity in women.That is the supposition that God's will is a detailed plan for every aspect of our lives,so that discernment is not a matter of adult reflection and decision,but a feat of finding the hidden preplan and then simply conforming to it.

Cary takes a similar position to Fischer's about finding God's will, but says that what you need to be doing is looking at scripture rather than finding that elusive inner revelation. I certainly agree more with Fischer's approach of "adult reflection and decision," but Fischer and Cary are in agreement about behaving as autonomous, responsible adults and not looking for some message etched in stone which we must then execute without thought.

This hits close to home, because this was the kind of indoctrination I got as a high school teenager in my local church youth group in the late 1960's and early 1970's. I rejected this notion fairly early on, but I'm sure it is a troubling matter for those who haven't. And it seems to be a persistent theme in some circles. Fischer's book was published in 1988 and Cary's last October.

I'm glad that people like Fischer and Cary are out there reminding people that this is not necessarily the best approach to take in finding one's direction in life.

Terry and I enjoy having fish as a regular part of our diet. Getting good fish, though, is tough since we lost Poppy's last June. The fish in our local grocery stores is less then stellar. I thought Safeway frozen fish might be an option, but our recent experience with that is that is has an "old" taste to it.

We were delighted when Whole Foods opened a store in south San Jose, very much on our way home when we're up in that area. But results there are mixed. We got some sea bass that had an old taste to it, though the last halibut we got was quite good. Up in Los Altos there's Andronico's, which always has good fish. That's very close to Terry's health care professionals and is on her way home when seeing her San Mateo County and North Bay customers.

On Saturday we went over to Capitola to pick up Terry's custom pendant (turned out wonderful!), so we buzzed down to Moss Landing and the famous Phil's fish market. We got scallops and shrimp (which Terry turned into a marvelous dinner) and halibut which I sealed up and froze for, probably, next Saturday.

So there's options. But getting good seafood just isn't as easy as when we had Poppy's around.

I thought I got a lot done during the holiday shutdown. I did, really. And I spent time relaxing and recharging as well. But somehow, getting recipes from our magazines to our kitchen netbook didn't happen. What once was caught up is now a big backlog. sigh Oh, well. We'll get there. (And let's not even mention all that vinyl I've intended to digitize.)

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Mike Christie

I live with my wife Terry and Tasha, our beagle-border terrier mix, in Hemet, which is in the San Jacinto Valley, on the eastern edge of Southern California's Inland Empire. I am actively working on developing a freelance writing and web content business. Details are on my web site:http://mikecwebandwriting.com/.

This blog is about the personal side of my life. I love my Kindle iPad app, cooking, watching cooking shows on television, and writing this blog. I am an Episcopalian and am happy to be a member of Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd here in Hemet.